


bring back again

by casualbird



Series: gilbert week 2020 [3]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Love, Multi, Post-Blue Lions Route (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Reconciliation, Weddings, family and found family, unburdening oneself of internalized homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-10
Updated: 2020-09-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:00:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26393803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/casualbird/pseuds/casualbird
Summary: There are a number of things about the wedding that Gilbert might once have looked askance at. He finds, however, dabbing at his eyes, vibrating nearly out of his seat, that not aoneof them is under issue any longer.Annette gets married. Gilbert is wildly, fathomlessly happy just to be there.
Relationships: Annette Fantine Dominic & Gilbert Pronislav, Annette Fantine Dominic/Lysithea von Ordelia, Hanneman von Essar/Gilbert Pronislav
Series: gilbert week 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877788
Comments: 5
Kudos: 36
Collections: Gilbert Week 2020





	bring back again

_hesperus, you bring back again  
what the dawn light scatters,  
bringing the sheep: bringing the kid:  
bringing the little child back to its mother.  
_

There are a number of things about the wedding that Gilbert might once have looked askance at. He finds, however, dabbing at his eyes, vibrating nearly out of his seat, that not a _one_ of them is under issue any longer.

Firstly, it’s in the cathedral at Garreg Mach, not the little cliffside chapel that generations of Dominics have wedded in. It’s just as well--Annette is a gregarious woman, and her guest list throngs like a great and cheerful army.

Secondly, there will be no exchange of dowry, but she’s managed to convince him this is _preferable,_ that this is _modern_ and _what she wants_ and _really, truly fine._

Thirdly--well, the bridegroom didn’t turn out to be the sort that Gilbert had envisioned for his daughter--because there _wasn’t one._ The great silver bells toll for Annette and _Lysithea von Ordelia,_ her colleague, her lady love. And there were to be no words against it--not when they looked so sweetly, radiantly happy. Not when the lion’s share of Annette’s songs had come to be about her Lyssie, and _especially_ not when Gilbert’s own Hanneman kept stealing glances at him from his place across the church!

Fourthly--truthfully, genuinely, in every deep recessed crevice of his being, Gilbert doesn’t mind not giving Annette away. He’d long relinquished the right to it, if he’d ever had such a thing to begin with. Really, if she had asked him-- well, there’s no use in dwelling on the hypothetical.

Besides, his girl looks just glorious, just absolutely full to bursting as she hustles up the aisle on Mercedes’ arm. White-gloved fingers dig into her soft bicep, and Annette’s eyes dart from her bride to her friend as if to ask _Mercie, are you seeing this? Mercie, is this real?_

Mercedes soothes her gracefully, leaving her at the top of the aisle with a kiss to her temple. Before she turns away, she adjusts Annette’s lace veil, brushes an errant piece of fluff from her teal gown.

Gilbert never would have thought to do that.

And he never would have thought--that Annette would turn to him, would grin and give a quick little crooking of her fingers, before hopping up to the altar, taking Lysithea’s steady hands in hers.

Suddenly, the last piece, the very last slipped joint of it pops into place.

She loves him. She wants him here.

She can’t give him _everything,_ nor would he want her to, but she’s gracious, gives more than enough.

It’s more than enough to watch the ceremony, saccharine and brisk and _highly_ unconventional, to watch Annette bind herself to her partner, her rival, her life. Much is made of the fact that they are always co-authors on each other’s research, that they can slip seamless into each other’s lesson plans. That they are each going to grow old with someone they _chose._

A heady thing. Gilbert folds his hands, and sighs, and feels a momentary pang for what could have been.

Only momentary, though, because then the vows are being said, and the King’s little son is dropping the rings, and Annette is doubling over in her gown, laughing and laughing and laughing.

And it is enough--it is _so much more than enough_ for him to be here, to share in this joy. To have a place at the head table during the reception, a toast written out on sweat-damp parchment in his pocket. To have mended things, if imperfectly, well enough to be received once more into this fold.

**Author's Note:**

> wouldn't it be nice. if annette had an ending with lysithea.
> 
> anyway i'm grateful to any of you who managed to come this far--and please do let me know what you thought of this, since this type of work isn't my usual.
> 
> addnly, if you're 18+, come hang out with me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/bird_scribbles) to talk about teeny lesbians and sad dads!
> 
> title and epigraph are from a.s. kline's translation of sappho. man i really wish i had the anne carson one.


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